Ephemeral Things
by mr-raindrops
Summary: Aomine was there from the very beginning, and remained until the very end. The things in between are fleeting, just one person's memories. AU, charadeath one-shot.


**Disclaimer: Kuroko no Basuke belongs to Fujimaki Tadatoshi.**

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Ephemeral Things

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He woke up one day, sitting upright with a jolt as if someone shocked him with voltage. Dust motes spun in the thin stream of sunlight let in by the half closed curtains, and he looked around, studying the room. It was remarkably bare for a bedroom, save for some posters of basketball players on the walls, some even signed.

As he was about to look to his left, a raspy voice rang out, "Tetsu?"

Blinking, he directed his gaze towards the source. A navy haired man stared blearily up at him, in disbelief if he didn't look so sleepy. He figured that the bed he was lying in belongs to that man.

"Who?"

The other eyed him, seeming to contemplate something. "You don't know." It wasn't a question.

"I don't," he agreed.

It was quiet for another moment, before the man straightened his back, rolling his shoulders as he spoke up again, almost casually. "Kuroko Tetsuya. You're Tetsu."

Kuroko searched the depths of his mind, but couldn't find any memories associated with the name. He dug deeper, inspecting every bit of information it stored, and still, nothing. Nothing about the man whose knuckles were turning white from gripping the sheets so tight, nothing about the name, nothing about himself. Nothing about Kuroko Tetsuya.

He was about to open his mouth to ask for the name of the dark skinned man, when the latter beat him to it.

"Aomine Daiki." The man paused, before adding, "I'm Aomine-kun."

Kuroko wondered what sort of relationship he must have had with the man for the other to know him so well.

Aomine seemed to hesitate before he finally managed the question, "would you like breakfast, then?", which sounded like he had forced it out of his throat.

Kuroko shook his head, but Aomine only scowled in return. "I think you do. You need to gain some weight," the taller one of the two said, lifting Kuroko's arm. He felt his brow twitch uncontrollably as Aomine began to poke his pretty much non-existent biceps. "It's like a stick or something. At least when we played basketball you―ow!"

Aomine raised a hand to press against his face, and Kuroko could see the broken blood vessels from where his hand had contacted with sun-kissed skin. "I'm not hungry. No thank you."

They stared at each other in silence, the air so still Kuroko might have not been breathing. Aomine broke away with a defeated sigh. "How about a vanilla milkshake, then?"

Kuroko considered it for a brief moment, before declining again. It sounded appetizing enough to his mind, but his stomach was being quite disagreeable. "Really, Aomine-kun," the name spilled out from his tongue, sounding as natural as witnessing a bird's ability to soar in the sky. "I'm not hungry."

The other threw his hands up in the air dramatically, looking like his resolve was absolutely decimated by Kuroko's stubbornness. It made him wonder if Aomine was used to dealing with him, because in his opinion he wasn't very adamant at all. Perhaps Aomine was the short-tempered type.

(Or maybe it was always this way, him getting on Aomine's nerves and pissing the other off occasionally. Then they'd go on with life like usual, then repeat.)

"Well, I'm hungry. We're going to Maji Burger for lunch," Aomine climbed to his feet, lazily stretching out his limbs like a cat before making his way to a drawer in the corner of the room. Kuroko's eyes followed his movements, and after some minutes of rummaging, he fished out large garments, wasn't for him. "It's this place we always ate at in middle school and high school."

Aomine proceeded to take his rumpled shirt off and threw on the t-shirt, and by the time he was out the bedroom door his shorts were already halfway off. There was some banging around, but soon the man returned with a set of clothing more suitable for Kuroko's frame. The other tossed it at him, and closed the door behind him to give Kuroko some privacy.

He threw the blankets aside, and he felt perfectly normal when he put weight on his legs, as if he didn't just wake from a who-knows-how-long slumber. As he dressed, Kuroko examined the posters more closely. The black scribbles of ink were more like comments than autographs, really, and the players looked exceptionally young.

The assortment of hair colours were a bit strange, though.

A knock on the door broke his focus away from the poster. "Tetsu, you done?"

It was kind of funny how familiarly Aomine already acted with him, and Kuroko noted this mentally, adding it to a collection of pieces in the puzzle of his own life, to put it poetically. It was also kind of funny how Aomine acted as if someone losing their memory was an everyday occurrence. Or at least he adapted fast.

"Yes," he replied, and yanked open the door to find that Aomine was _so much more taller than he had expected_. He couldn't help the mild look of irritation that he felt was crawling up onto his face, though he wasn't feeling all too bothered by it. He had to crane his neck a bit to meet the other's eyes properly.

Aomine grinned, and Kuroko just knew that he was enjoying the whole thing.

"Let's go then," he led the way to the foyer, and as they walked through the hallway, Kuroko noticed another room, less barren.

Books were scattered all over the place, on the floor, on the bed, _below_ the bed... There were picture frames too, some hung up on the walls, some sitting on the work desk. Light refracted through a hanging prism, creating a spectrum of colours. He caught glimpses of blue on the photographs, some like the sky on a clear day and others like waves of the ocean.

"That's your room," Aomine piped up quite helpfully, which Kuroko suspected would be a rare happening from there on out. "We shared the apartment in university. We still haven't decided who's gonna move out yet."

Yup. Completely normal to have a roommate lose all the memories of his personal life. Kuroko slowly nodded, eyes drawn to a basketball partly buried by a stack of books. He peered at Aomine from his peripherals, but the other only had a small smile on his face. It reminded him of old people who got too nostalgic.

His gaze averted to the tanned man's hair. Sea blue.

* * *

"... _android meant for assassination... on the loose_," the reporter's voice broke off here and there with the background noise of the radio. Kuroko didn't know why they hadn't just gone across the street to the fast food restaurant there, but had to _drive_ to a specific location just to eat _burgers_.

"Not just any burgers," Aomine had defended against the complaints. "Teriyaki burgers."

Sighing for the umpteenth time, Kuroko decided to try inquiring about the said androids all over the news. All his earlier questions had been avoided with a mischievous grin, but they had been personal. "Aomine-kun, what's this about the androids?"

The man beside him snorted. Kuroko didn't see what was so amusing about it even as he explained, "these really expensive robots that this one crime organization created. If the organization sees you as a threat, they drag your mom or your girlfriend away, kill them, and then duplicate that person in the form of an android. Then they send the fake one back to you and it's timed so that it blows up."

Kuroko didn't respond. He tried to imagine what it would be like to have a precious one taken away to die, just to return again to take his life. Thoughts clashed with one another until it was just a confusing jumble of incoherent _things_.

"Then, Aomine-kun..." Kuroko pressed, and Aomine turned into the parking lot of a restaurant. "What would you feel like if they took away someone you love to do that to you?"

Kuroko didn't know what he should expect, but it sure wasn't the look of terror that flashed across the other's face like a bolt of lightning, there one second and gone the next.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to ask.

He turned off the engine, and leaned back into his seat. Kuroko proceeded to unbuckle his belt awkwardly. He still couldn't decide what kind of person Aomine was. At the way things stood, Kuroko would have even believed that the man had a split personality if he was just told so.

Kuroko brooded over whether it would be inappropriate or not to inch his hand towards the handle of the car door.

There was a quiet exhale of breath, and Kuroko turned his attention to Aomine, who ran his fingers through his short hair. It broke the silence, at least, though tension still hung.

"I think I'd die."

It seemed a bit far fetched by way of emotion, but Aomine probably shouldn't be underestimated. Kuroko tried to organize the whirling chaos within him, and concluded that 'I think I'd die' is the only phrase he could put to it as a description of how he felt.

"I think I'd die too," he voiced in assent, though it came out more like a deadpan. "I'm sure the explosion would kill me."

"Not that!" Aomine growled, and opened the door to get out. Fresh air rushed in, carrying with it a kind of summery tranquility and whiffs of cooking meat. "I mean like, if I get to choose whether to live or die, I'd die."

Kuroko followed him to the entrance doors, and into the fast food restaurant. Despite his steadfast refusals, Aomine still bought a vanilla shake for him, and they sat in a booth beside the giant windows as Aomine plunged into his burgers.

Kuroko chewed on his straw, staring at the other intently and trying to figure out just what kind of relationship they had shared in the past.

"So what do Aomine-kun do for a living?" He began, figuring that he might as well start from the beginning. "What do I do for a living?"

Aomine popped some fries into his mouth. "So you still don't remember anything?"

"No."

The tanned man didn't change his indifferent demeanor. "Well, you're a teacher. Kindergarten teacher. I work down at the police station."

"So then Aomine-kun is a police officer?"

He nodded, somewhat distracted with swirling the strips of potato in ketchup. "Yeah. They want me to take the chief's place soon."

Kuroko had let that sink into his head. He looked to the window while mulling over it, and caught a barely visible reflection of himself. Large eyes, pale skin, and a shock of blue hair. Sky blue hair, to be exact.

When Aomine finished up the last piece of his burger, he continued to explain. About his job, about Kuroko's job. Then he moved onto their experiences in university, then their high school days, and then onto their middle school life, when they had met.

As they exited the restaurant, Aomine guided Kuroko away from the direction of the parking lot, and instead started to cross the busy intersection. Kuroko had to jog a little to keep up with his long strides.

They neared the gate of a school, 'Teikou Middle School', according to the plaque. Kuroko cocked an eyebrow.

"Our school," Aomine announced after seeing the shorter man's expression. He talked about middle school then, about basketball. He gave facts about the 'Generation of Miracles', as they were called and were a part of. Then about the light and shadow duo of Teikou.

They moved on. Next stop was Seirin, a private high school. "We went to different high schools," he stated. He offered more explanations. About winning and losing, about the bitterness that had separated the two because of basketball, about bumping fists again after Kuroko had won Aomine's school during a winter tournament.

Kuroko listened intently, nodding to confirm interest at fitting spots in the conversation here and there. Aomine added in some odd and seemingly trivial details about Kuroko, the kinds that people didn't usually pay attention to or remember ― that Kuroko liked to eat the edges cone of the ice cream first, that he peeled bananas from the non-stalk end, that he liked to have the curtains only partly drawn at night.

They trudged back to Maji Burger, only to drive around the city while Aomine pointed out places that were associated with a part of their youth or their life now. It seemed that Aomine was quite determined to remind Kuroko of who he was, or at least to reconstruct whatever possible bits of his memory.

"See that mall there? There used to be an arcade up on the top floor. We took a team picture there with the other regulars in middle school. They renovated it a few years ago, though, so now it's some fancy French caf_é."_

They passed a hospital, a bakery. Midorima Shintarou and Murasakibara Atsushi worked there, Aomine said. He identified the model on one of the billboards nearby advertising spring fashion as Momoi Satsuki, the manager of their basketball team, who apparently had been borderline obsessive over Kuroko. He described Kise Ryouta's bubbly personality, his desire to experience new things that propelled him to pilot planes all over the world. He depicted an image of Akashi Seijuurou's commanding presence, and the way he was able to lead the craziest of teenage brats.

They passed the fire station, which prompted Aomine to tell Kuroko all about Kagami Taiga. "He was your light in high school," Aomine disclosed. Kuroko stored the data in his head, filling in the empty spaces, albeit a small amount.

They pulled up by the curb near the kindergarten where Kuroko worked at. He stood in the quickly cooling air of the evening as he stared at the school. Kuroko's gaze wandered to Aomine beside him, rays of the sun lining the edges of his hair and face with shimmery gold.

"You were reported missing," Aomine said softly, voice acquiring a breathy quality. "You were gone for eleven days."

A slight breeze ruffled locks of dark blue, tugging strands up into the air.

Kuroko wanted to ask why Aomine cared so much, because he didn't understand the way that his tone had changed, something new in it. Something dreary made its way into Kuroko's mind, but he shook the thought away.

Before he knew what was happening, the other stepped forward and enveloped his small form in his large body. He hadn't realized how cold he had felt, even though it was summer, until Aomine's body heat seeped through his clothes. Kuroko could feel, and hear, the beating of Aomine's heart, maybe even more comforting than a fist bump.

It was only when Aomine pulled away that Kuroko realized that his own heartbeat was different.

They weren't heartbeats at all.

The man's face was contorted in a way that made Kuroko think of the words 'I think I'd die' again.

"So then," he whispered, and Kuroko had to strain his ears. "Do you know who you are now?"

He nodded, feeling suddenly sluggish. "... I should think so. I'm Kuroko Tetsuya. I'm Tetsu."

Everything blurred, and he wasn't sure, but he thought that his knee buckled and gave away beneath him. There was a strange whirring sound, like engine.

He heard weak laughter, and Kuroko imagined Aomine crouching down so that he could put his weight on the taller man, and he would scoff at how light Kuroko was.

"Tetsu, I'm..." His voice broke off like the words that he was about to say had sharp edges that caught onto his throat. "Some detective guy found the password to kill the system. There's a panel with buttons on your back where the code can be entered."

Kuroko didn't expect the quiet chuckle that came from himself. "Aomine-kun has to do what he has to do."

Taut silence reigned for a short minute, and Aomine choked out something that sounded vaguely like 'thank you'.

Kuroko wanted to roll his eyes, but instead, his lips quirked up into a small smile. "I'm the one who needs to thank you, Aomine-kun."

"Shut up."

Though they got alone just fine, more than fine, actually, he never really got an idea of how hard the both of them must have been to handle for the people around them. And he still doesn't.

So the last thought in his muddled database of a brain as his eyes slowly starts to close ― shutting out the distorted sunset, the _light_ ― is the person that had been with him since he had woken up.

The wires below the fake skin of his face senses something running down his cheeks.

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**A/N: **so may is like ao- everyone month goodness.

I HONESTLY DID NOT THINK OF 5/11?! THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS WORKING ON THIS OTHER THINGY FOR 6/15! I'M SORRY I'M SORRY CHARADEATH AGAIN ON AOKURO DAY NO LESS /shot. btw this is like one of those projects in school i procrastinate on so gomen.

(and is it weird that i peel bananas from the opposite-of-the-stalk end? o-o)

so yes anyways. happy aokuro day have fun crying your feels out /insert evil laughter here.


End file.
